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edX Science & Cooking: content discussion and support

Alex

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Alex

Alex

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By popular request, here's the topic where participants can ask for and receive support, information, help, etc. related to the 2017 iteration of this course.

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"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

A king can stand people's fighting, but he can't last long if people start thinking. -Will Rogers, humorist

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FrogPrincesse

FrogPrincesse

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Thanks.

 

Is it just me or do the equations show up completely funky in the course material?

For example in the Review Materials section, under Logarithmic and exponential functions:

Quote

 

\( - \log_a \left( b\right) = \log_a \left( b^{-1} \right) = \log_a \left( \frac{1}{b} \right) \)

 

 

Or maybe that's American math??!

Edited by FrogPrincesse (log)

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Alex

Alex

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18 minutes ago, FrogPrincesse said:

Thanks.

 

Is it just me or do the equations show up completely funky in the course material?

For example in the Review Materials section, under Logarithmic and exponential functions:

 

Or maybe that's American math??!

 

 

Looks like formatting codes that didn't convert into an actual equation. I haven't looked at the actual course yet, but I strongly suspect that edX has a tech support service that you could contact.

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

A king can stand people's fighting, but he can't last long if people start thinking. -Will Rogers, humorist

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FrogPrincesse

FrogPrincesse

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Just now, Alex said:

 

Looks like formatting codes that didn't convert into an actual equation. I haven't looked at the actual course yet, but I strongly suspect that edX has a tech support service that you could contact.

They do. This is on an old laptop and none of the equations seem to show up properly. I am going to contact them.

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FrogPrincesse

FrogPrincesse

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Super odd. I was about to post the question on their discussion board, I went back to the page with the equations, and now everything looks normal!

At least I won't have to do so much guess work with these equations. :)

 

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Anna N

Anna N

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 I think I reached the point where I flunked out the last time!  Dimensional analysis.  Long ago forgot how to work with exponents if I ever knew.  Never met a Newton I could converse with.  I do know a Joule because that's what cooks my meat. I guess what I am saying is those of us without a good grounding in math are just going to drown. Offers of help are appreciated but when you do not even have a clue how to formulate the problem then you're not likely to get the help you need to solve it.  Will I give up?  On the math I most certainly will. I'm hoping that all will not be lost though.  Most of us have been cooking for a very, very long time without ever being able to define a Pascal or use it in an equation. 

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

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Anna N

Anna N

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25 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

This time around I purchased my own copy of McGee rather than relying on the library copy which I eventually had to give back.

 

 I was very, very tempted to buy the Kindle version but since it is more expensive than the hardcopy and I already have the hard copy I came to my senses.

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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Soupcon

Soupcon

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My head is spinning from the math segment of this course. I can't remember a damn thing about logs etc.  Oh well........ sigh....

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"Flay your Suffolk bought-this-morning sole with organic hand-cracked pepper and blasted salt. Thrill each side for four minutes at torchmark haut. Interrogate a lemon. Embarrass any tough roots from the samphire. Then bamboozle till it's al dente with that certain je ne sais quoi."

Arabella Weir as Minty Marchmont - Posh Nosh

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Smithy

Smithy

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2 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

The sheet of equations gave me flashbacks to those awful 8 AM PChem lectures - 2 semesters worth :o!

 

PChem at any hour was rough.  08:00 would have been the worst!  I will say, however, that this course's review of pH, moles and concentrations helped clarify and consolidate knowledge that I had barely understood before.

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
Host, eG Forums - nsmith@egstaff.org

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"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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rustwood

rustwood

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I have started the course, but at this time I am leaning towards more of a passive audit of it than actively participating.  I don't expect I would have any problem doing the the equations, but it remains to be seen if I will really care to do them.  Similarly, while I am sure there is a lot of underlying science knowledge I could learn from the course, the depth of what they are presenting may exceed my level of interest.  I am happy to learn the science if/when it furthers my culinary "skills" (such as they are), but I am not as interested in leveraging my interest in cooking to further my general science knowledge.  Thus far the course seems to be focused on the latter more than the former, but perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised.  Who knows, I might end up being more interested in the science than I expect.

 

This is the first edX course I have taken and the one thing that bothers me is that I haven't been able to find a detailed listing of the length of each video for the week/module.  I believe all of the Coursera courses I have taken have had those details readily available.  That info helps me gauge my progress and re-adjust the amount I need to complete the material for the week/module.  Has anyone else seen anything like that for this course?  Perhaps I am just missing it.

 

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Alex

Alex

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13 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

The sheet of equations gave me flashbacks to those awful 8 AM PChem lectures - 2 semesters worth :o!

 

I understand completely. For me, it was two semesters of MWF 8 a.m. Physics. And on TuThSa I started my day with German at 9 a.m. Welcome to college!

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"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

A king can stand people's fighting, but he can't last long if people start thinking. -Will Rogers, humorist

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rob1234

rob1234

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4 hours ago, rustwood said:

 I am not as interested in leveraging my interest in cooking to further my general science knowledge.  Thus far the course seems to be focused on the latter more than the former

 

This is what I found when I did the course last time (finished about 3/4). I thought it was more a science course using cooking to explain things then a cooking course using science.

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Anna N

Anna N

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Well I'm going to ignore the math as much as I possibly can and try to get something out of the course. Once my oven cools down from some bread baking I am going to start the lab involving testing the temperature of an oven using the melting point of white sugar. I may be an arts major but I think I can handle it. xD

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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Smithy

Smithy

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2 hours ago, Anna N said:

Well I'm going to ignore the math as much as I possibly can and try to get something out of the course. Once my oven cools down from some bread baking I am going to start the lab involving testing the temperature of an oven using the melting point of white sugar. I may be an arts major but I think I can handle it. xD

 

I don't remember whether your oven is gas or electric.  Mine (at home) is electric.  I was unpleasantly surprised to learn that it significantly overshoots the target temperature when preheating, then cycles wildly when it is supposed to be at the set temperature.  That alone was a valuable lesson from this particular lab, but it took a while to figure out why the sugar was melting at such unexpected temperatures! 

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
Host, eG Forums - nsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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weedy

weedy

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On 1/19/2017 at 2:06 PM, Anna N said:

 I was very, very tempted to buy the Kindle version but since it is more expensive than the hardcopy and I already have the hard copy I came to my senses.

it's also much more difficult (read as: annoying) to get around in

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Anna N

Anna N

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1 hour ago, Smithy said:

 

I don't remember whether your oven is gas or electric.  Mine (at home) is electric.  I was unpleasantly surprised to learn that it significantly overshoots the target temperature when preheating, then cycles wildly when it is supposed to be at the set temperature.  That alone was a valuable lesson from this particular lab, but it took a while to figure out why the sugar was melting at such unexpected temperatures! 

 It is electric. And so far lives up to my expectations. I have always said it was very accurate and the sugar melted between 360 and 370 Fahrenheit.  Next time I am bored I will set it for exactly 366 and see what happens. It's digital so I can do that. Right now I'm doing the second part of that lab which involves putting a oven thermometer in there and seeing if it reads accurately. But I have more trust in my oven than in the thermometer!   So it will be interesting to see. This thermometer is slow to respond.

 

Edited to add:

Bang on 300 F. 

Edited by Anna N (log)
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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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Anna N

Anna N

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44 minutes ago, weedy said:

it's also much more difficult (read as: annoying) to get around in

I don't doubt that but for myself I often find that I have far less trouble with the Kindle version than others do. Perhaps it is because the benefits outweigh the annoyances for me. 

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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weedy

weedy

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I love my iPad for reading books (especially on airplanes), but for COOK books I find it more difficult to navigate as they often involve jumping from the index to page references and back and forth...

 

 

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Anna N

Anna N

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11 minutes ago, weedy said:

I love my iPad for reading books (especially on airplanes), but for COOK books I find it more difficult to navigate as they often involve jumping from the index to page references and back and forth...

 

 

Great reason to celebrate our differences. I expect we will need many such reasons in the coming days.xD

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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Okanagancook

Okanagancook

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So far I'm loving this course.  Bare in mind I have a degree in Nutrition and was a registered clinical dietitian.  I went back to University at age 33 to finish my nutrition degree and had major recall difficulties when taking the first semester organic and inorganic chemistry!!:/

 

Now retired, I am going through those same recall problems.  It brings to mind the calculations I needed to complete for my analytical chemistry labs.  The calculations often took two to four pages in my lab book!  If your result was not within 5% of the correct amount being analyzed for you got a fail on the lab.  The labs were four hours long and the lab write up took most of my Sunday afternoons!  Sheesh.

 

The first interesting point which the course raised was in the calculation of the number of sodium molecules present compared to sugar molecules.  Almost twice as many molecules of sodium while taking up only 1/16 of the gram weight as sugar.  Hummmm

 

anyway, I am still ploughing through the course material and I find the level of instruction to be, well, Harvard-like, as I excellent.

 

but, I hear everyone about their lack of mathematical confidence...just give it a go.  Try a few problems.  Check out the answers.

 

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